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Submitted by PatientsEngage on 3 March 2019

Google launches new Android apps for the deaf and hearing impaired community. R. Radha who lost her hearing a couple of years back and her family tried out the app and shared their feedback. 

According to WHO, over 5% of the world's population (466 million people) has disabling hearing loss (432 million adults and 34 million children). 

In light of this, Google recently launched two mobile apps on Android - Live Transcribe and Sound Amplifier. These are aimed at the millions of people who are deaf or hard of hearing. The Live Transcribe app uses Google’s cloud-based, speech-to-text intelligence to offer text representations of spoken conversations as they’re happening. The Sound Amplifier app relies on an Android-based dynamic audio processing effect to make speech and other sounds easier to hear.

Live Transcribe is fairly easy to use with some useful features:

  • A blue circle in the corner pulses slightly to show the ambient noise level so that you can visually see if you need to move the microphone closer to the speaker for it to work. 
  • You can also hit a small button to bring up a keyboard to type out replies if you need to. 
  • If somebody starts speaking after a period of silence, Live Transcribe will vibrate the phone to let you know to look at it to see what is being said.
  • You can set a primary and secondary language, toggling between them with a quick tap. It supports up to 70 different primary languages. Most major Indian languages are supported.

User feedback on Live Transcribe app:

Radha, 84 who lost her hearing a couple of years ago and her daughter Vasu shared their feedback after trying it for a couple of days. 

Radha - It has made my life interesting again. Even though I cannot hear, I am still curious about the conversations that are happening. Its not enough to only read the newspaper or look at the TV screen. Now I am somewhat able to follow conversations, especially with the Tamil version. 

Listening to one person is a lot of work for a hearing impaired person 

Vasu - It has made a big difference to me as a caregiver. I used to write on a slate. It depends on the handwriting, the space available on the slate. Amma would run out of patience waiting for us to write before she could read. The Live Transcribe screen is clearer. Fonts are bigger. Its made my life easier.

Note: The apps are currently in beta mode.